Saturday 22 April 2023 (morning)
Université Saint-Louis, Rue du Marais 119, Brussels.
Robert Logan: ‘Ireland and the Moulding of Patrick’
Robert Logan, Chair of the Irish section of the Brontë Society, will talk about Patrick Brontë, father of the Brontë siblings, and the Brontës’ Irish heritage. He will explore the influences and forces that impacted on the young Patrick and how this in turn is reflected in the lives of his children.
Robert Logan, a recently-retired GP, has been closely involved with the Brontë Society’s Irish Section for over 20 years. The group promotes interest in the Brontë Homeland in County Down, Northern Ireland, where Patrick was born and grew up.
Monica Wallace: ‘Meanwhile in Ireland … The Irish Relations of the Brontë family and of Arthur Bell Nichols’
Monica Wallace writes: ‘Returning to my home in Dublin after a five-year term working for the Irish government in Brussels, I mentioned in passing to my elderly neighbour, Jenny, how much I had enjoyed being a part of the Brussels Brontë Group. “Oh, that’s very interesting”, she said, “did you know I’m a descendant of William Brontë, Reverend Patrick Brontë’s brother?” I was astonished! Jenny fetched a box of “silly old family stuff” down from the attic, and so began my amazing journey of research and discovery about the Irish Brontë cousins—contemporaries, and surely the object of some curiousity, of the Haworth sisters. Focussed on the County Down homeland, my research soon led me to their relatively near neighbours, Arthur Bell Nichol’s birth family of Killead, County Antrim and, in turn, to Arthur’s adoptive family, the Bells of Banagher.
We will never know exactly how much Charlotte, Emily and Anne knew of their Irish relatives or those of Arthur Bell Nichols, but those lives form a very interesting backdrop to the wider experiences of the Haworth family. I wrote about Jenny’s great-grandfather, John Brontë, for Brontë Studies (Vol. 47 No. 3 July 2022), but I am delighted to be asked to present my wider findings about the ‘Irish Relations’ to the Brussels Brontë Group in April 2023.’
Monica Wallace worked as a civil servant in Irish central government, including a period as EU Transport Attaché in Brussels, until 2017. She now works in public sector recruitment and training, and is also a director of The Dublin City Volunteer Centre, and a director of The Maritime Institute of Ireland. As well as her research on the Bronte’s Irish connections, she is involved in a number of local history and literary research projects.
Sunday 23 April 2023.
Guided walk
10.00-12.00. Guided walk around Brontë places in Brussels in the Place Royale area.
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